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Artist Invites Public to Take an Alternative Look at Cardiff

Date uploaded: March 19, 2009

Museum of the Moment is the latest work by Cardiff artist, Jennie Savage as she invites you to discover the secret life of the city by taking a walk through its streets, directed by a series of voice recordings. You are invited to walk through Cardiff and tune into the secret life of the city. Navigate your way through the city’s Victorian and Edwardian arcades and the Hayes area under an audio cloud, listening to the reflections, histories, gossip and daydreams of this place.

As you walk, listen and regard your surroundings, voices will emerge, inviting you to become a stranger in the city and to chance upon an ordinary yet fantastic world....perhaps the city is not just made up of buildings, maybe it’s a collection of stories, connections, meetings, exchanges; people’s lives interwoven in time.

The Museum of the Moment is a museum of a moment, a place in time on the brink of change.

Jennie says: “The Museum of the Moment will feel like putting on a cloak of audibility. Once you are wearing it you will be able to tune into the city. Its unfolding life in front of you becomes the museum’s collection and as you walk you begin to look again; that which previously seemed ordinary is transformed into a fascinating, beautiful world.”

“I hope the walk will make people look at the city in a different way. Perhaps the city is not just made up of buildings; maybe it’s a collection of stories, connections, meetings… exchanges between people’s lives interwoven in time.

The voices direct your view, pointing out what you should notice as you drift through the arcades… the detail over a door, a pattern, the light, a feeling. Walkers are invited to physically navigate a vast archive of conversations in relation to the geography of the city.”

Commissioned by Safle as part of the St David’s 2 Public Art Programme, Museum of the Moment is part of ‘The Arcades Project: a 3D Documentary’, a series of projects exploring Cardiff’s Victorian and Edwardian shopping arcades using storytelling, documentary, localised phenomena and historical methodologies. It is inspired by Walter Benjamin’s Arcades Project and created in the light of the construction of St David’s 2.

Museum of the Moment runs from 3rd April to 3rd May (closed Mondays) from 11am to 5.30pm (last issue at

4.30pm). Pick up and drop off your headphones at the Museum of the Moment booth in the Tourist Information

Centre on the ground floor of Cardiff’s Old Library on the Hayes.

 

Visit www.safle.com/english/news_opportunities/mom